Entitled insult - really annoying

[tittytittyhanghang]

AIBU to hate this insult, usually thrown at (piss poor) people who are on benefits? I rarely see middle class families claiming child benefit getting accused of having an 'entitled' attitude. Surely if support/financial assistance/community help etc. is provided by government then if you qualify, you take it presumably because you need it.

YANBU.

Its tory propaganda. I try to ignore it now.

There have been LOADS of threads where people who were losing CB got called entitled.

yanbu if it bothers you.

But then I hate people being called 'piss poor'.

Yabu to think this insult, if it actually is an insult, is only thrown at poor people.

On MN I've seen it said about the whole baby boomer generation and pensioners who don't need their WFA.

But it's not about what is provided by government for people to claim, it's about people thinking that they have a right to things paid for by other people, rather than realising how lucky they are.

To me, it's about a state of mind. I don't think everyone on benefits (be they child benefit, DLA etc) is 'entitled'

I do think families who have no intention whatsoever of working but continue to have child after child (for example) with no concern whatsoever as to how they'll pay for them (i.e. they expect the state to step up and help) are 'entitled'. People who work don't get pay rises/more contractual benefits when they have another child after all.

However, this is a view formed from knowing people in person with this 'entitled' attitude, not from reading the Daily Mail, I hasten to add.

oh no i forgot buggerama people in benefits are rolling in it. i can tell you i would much rather be out earning money than being on benefits scraping by to buy a loaf of bread half way through the month. i don't have flat screen tvs or endless amounts of cash.
ive seen it from both sides i worked and ran my own business, rented my own place to live. then all of a sudden i was fucked over left homeless without a penny with a 2 yr old. i took the benfits because i needed them.

buggerama, yes piss poor, which is what you typically are if your out of work and on benefits.

Or if you work full time but get paid MW.

YANBU!!!

I do think families who have no intention whatsoever of working but continue to have child after child (for example) with no concern whatsoever as to how they'll pay for them (i.e. they expect the state to step up and help) are 'entitled'

I think they're as rare as rocking horse shit and just thick. Really thick, unemployable in all likelihood, (you'd have to be if a life spent on benefits is the height of your aspirations) and would struggle to hold down any kind of job IRL.

If you bother reading your history books you'll see that the 'undeserving poor' have ALWAYS been with us slated for having too many kids that they can't afford. Right back to Elizabethan times. No benefits back then for folk to feel 'entitled' to either.

I don't think 'piss poor' refers to poor people - it's a quotation from Private Eye, where it's mostly used to insult inadequate work, writing, policies, reporting etc. See here.

"I can tell you i would much rather be out earning money than being on benefits scraping by to buy a loaf of bread half way through the month."

It's so sad but this actually happens. A person living in benefits isn't living the life of riley, so when their money runs out and their cupboard has only a packet of cuppa soups left in it, I'd hardly think of them as being "entitled" when they think they don't get enough money to live.

Living "in" benefits??

Living ON benefits! Lol

LapsedPacifist I agree that people like that are rare. But they do exist and - in my (rare, granted) experience (note, experience, not opinion) they are employable. Whether there is a job available or them is another argument not for this thread, but they don't care as they've never looked. Why would they? They get paid more to stay at home.

But rare, yes, you're right.

They may have been slated for having too many kids in the past. Doesn't make it right... Plus there were other socio-economic reasons or big families then.

I do have to disagree with the opinion that all people on benefits are 'piss poor' (I don't particularly like that expression). My mother certainly isn't and she's on benefits.

Everyone feels entitled to something, it seems to depend on what someone feels entitled to that determines whether that is insulting or not.

People are entitled to feel entitled if they pay in to society financially and socially.

I feel very much entitled to high quality healthcare and education for my children. If someone pointed out that that's how I feel, I wouldn't be insulted.

This does my head in for pedantic reasons

'Being entitled' isn't a bad thing, and it isn't an insult. It just means that you have an entitlement (or a right, or a claim, or whatever) to something.

People misuse the word, when what they really mean is that someone is 'assuming entitlement to things that others feel they do not deserve (or do not receive themselves) and should not therefore be entitled to'.

Outraged and Queenof...' agree with both of you... I just couldn't put my finger on why I was putting entitled in inverted commas

Given the level of benefits for people with children (in rented accomodation, not home owners), "piss poor" is likely to be a lifestyle choice. If cigarettes, alcohol, tv and mobile phone contracts are treated as essentials, it is hardly any wonder that the money won't cover all of the essentials required. Far poorer are those working in low paid jobs.

i could try and explain why i struggle with money but whats the point some have already made their minds up. i dont drink, i dont smoke i dont have a mobile contract. but hey! im not going to bother responding on this thread anymore.

DP and I dont smoke, drink, have a flatscreen tv. No mobile contracts. We have cheap phones from when DP worked and we have the broadband. We dont even have a laptop. We use wifi on the phones.

Benefits are enough for the absolute basics. Which is all they should be enough for. But to say they are a lifestyle is madness.

If they are a lifestyle choice then its a pretty shit choice.

I never really saw it as particularly about poor people to be honest: and not even necessarily about money. For me someone who is "entitled" is someone who takes it as read that they should get something just because that's what they have had in the past. That is just as likely to be some middle class media type feeling entitled to get the perfect post maternity job (as opposed to having to take what's out there) as it is a SAHM living entirely off benefits. Or a baby boomer feeling entitled to a long and healthy retirement paid for by employer's benificence tipped up by the State. You don't have to be poor to be entitled.